| £ | s | d | £ | s | d | |||
| Captain[976] | 4 | 14 | 4 | to | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lieutenant[977] | 3 | 0 | 0 | ” | 3 | 10 | 0 | |
| Master | 2 | 6 | 8 | ” | 3 | 13 | 9 | |
| Pilot | 1 | 10 | 0 | ” | 2 | 5 | 0 | |
| Master’s mate | 1 | 10 | 0 | ” | 2 | 5 | 0 | |
| Boatswain | 1 | 3 | 4 | ” | 2 | 5 | 0 | |
| Boatswain’s mate | 1 | 0 | 8 | ” | 1 | 6 | 3 | |
| Purser | 1 | 3 | 4 | ” | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Surgeon | 1 | 10 | 0 | |||||
| Surgeon’s mate | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Quartermaster | 1 | 0 | 0 | ” | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| Quartermaster’s mate | 0 | 17 | 6 | ” | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| Yeomen of | { jeers } | 1 | 1 | 0 | ” | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| { sheets } | ||||||||
| { tacks } | ||||||||
| { halliards } | ||||||||
| Carpenter | 1 | 1 | 0 | ” | 1 | 17 | 6 | |
| Carpenter’s mate | 0 | 18 | 8 | ” | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| Corporal[978] | 0 | 18 | 8 | ” | 1 | 10 | 4 | |
| Gunner | 1 | 3 | 4 | ” | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Gunner’s mate | 0 | 18 | 8 | ” | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| Cook | 1 | 0 | 0 | ” | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| Master Trumpeter | 1 | 5 | 0 | ” | 1 | 8 | 0 | |
| Other trumpeters | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||
| Drummer | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Fifer | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Armourer | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Gunmaker | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Seaman | 0 | 15 | 0 | |||||
| Gromet | 0 | 11 | 3 | |||||
| Boy | 0 | 7 | 6 | |||||
The purpose in appointing lieutenants was
‘to breed young gentlemen for the sea service.... The reason why there are not now so many able sea-captains as there is use of is because there hath not been formerly allowance for lieutenants, whereby gentlemen of worth and quality might be encouraged to go to sea. And if peace had held a little longer the old sea captains would have been worn out, as that the state must have relied wholly on mechanick men that have been bred up from swabbers, and ... to make many of them would cause sea service in time to be despised by gentlemen of worth, who will refuse to serve at sea under such captains.’[979]
According to this view the original naval lieutenant was equivalent to the modern midshipman, in which case his pay seems very high, unless it is to be explained by the tendency to favour social position. The midshipman, introduced somewhat later, was at first only an able seaman with special duties. The foregoing extract is in itself a vivid illustration of the reasons for the loathing, yearly growing in intensity, the seamen, or ‘mechanick men,’ had for their courtier captains.
The Disorganisation:—Poverty of the Crown.
As at the time the crown was making these liberal promises it had not sufficient money to fit out two ships required for special service on the Barbary coast, and as vessels were being kept in nominal employment because even a few hundred pounds could not be raised wherewith to pay off their crews, it is not surprising that the men showed no renewed eagerness to die lingeringly for their country, and that the proclamation of April needed a corollary in the shape of another threatening deserters with the penalty of death. This was issued on 18th June, and a week later the crew of the Lion at Portsmouth, 400 or 500 strong, left the ship with the intention of marching up to London. The officers read the last proclamation to them and promised to write about their grievances; but the men, quite unappalled, replied that ‘their wives and children were starving and they perishing on board.’[980] Wives and children were neglected factors in the dynastic combinations of Charles and Buckingham, and husbands and fathers might consider themselves amply rewarded if their efforts enabled the King to restore the Palatinate to his nephew. The Commissioners complained despondingly that they were unable to progress with the new fleet while the back wages were unpaid, and ‘the continual clamour ... doth much distract and discourage us.’[981] The Swiftsure at Portsmouth had only 150 instead of 250 men, of whom 50 were raw boys, and all the other ships there were but half manned. Palmer, commanding in the Downs, had never suffered such extremity even in war time, he said, and his men flatly refused to work unless they were fed, a really justifiable form of strike. At this date there were six men-of-war and ten armed merchantmen at Portsmouth, but, says Gyffard, the men ‘run away as fast as they are sent ... all things so out of order as that I cannot see almost any possibility for the whole fleet to go to sea in a long time.’[982] The intensity of Captain Gyffard’s feelings somewhat obscured his clearness of expression.
The lessons of the previous year appear to have taught nothing; the victuallers were still sending in provisions of the old bad quality, and the beef sent to Portsmouth weighed only 2 lbs. the piece, instead of the 4 lbs. for which the crown was charged. The Chatham shipwrights threatened to cease work unless they were paid, and Pennington, now at Portsmouth, wrote that after all the preparations, extending over some months, there were no hammocks and not even cans or platters to eat and drink from. All these requests and complaints poured in nearly daily on Buckingham who should have been an organising genius to deal with the complex disorder, instead of merely a man of some talent and much optimism, also troubled by a refractory Parliament, perverse continental powers scornful of his ingenuous diplomacy, and the varied responsibilities of all the other departments of the government. In September the Commissioners pointed out to him that a debt of £4000 a month was being incurred for want of £14,000 to pay off the men, who were now reduced to stealing their daily food; those in the river were so disorderly that the Board could not meet without danger, as the sailors threatened to break the doors down on them, and the shipwrights from Chatham had besieged them for twenty days.[983]
By this time, however, as the result of requiring the coast towns to provide ships, forced loans, and other measures, Willoughby was at sea with a fleet, but one which was a third weaker in strength than had been intended. Before reaching Falmouth he found twenty tuns of ‘stinking beer’ on his own ship, and the rest of the squadron was as ill off. The men were ‘poor and mean’ physically, and deficient in number, the stores generally bad and insufficient, there being only enough provisions to go to the Straits of Gibraltar and back again, and the excursion being useless, because too late in the year, when all the enemies’ fleets had returned home.[984] The complaint of want of men was met by an order that he should take on board 500 soldiers to help in working the ships; in two vessels intended for him two-thirds of the men had run away, being too glad to escape at the cost of forfeiting five months’ wages due to them, and the Commissioners proposed to fill their places ‘by forcing men to work with threatenings, having no money to pay them.’[985] The artless belief of their kind in the efficacy of threats once more placed them in a foolish position. The crew of the Happy Entrance refused to sail, saying that they would rather be hanged ashore than starve at sea,[986] but even the relentless egotism of Charles was not equal to hanging them.